Bodhidarma
In the sixth century, a monk with a new perspective on Buddhism came to China from India. This monk was called Bodhidarma and he later founded Zenbuddhism or "Chan" in chinese. He arrived on a boat to Guangzhou, where he started his journey to northern China. In the year 527 he came to the Buddhist temple of Shaolin. However, the abbot did not let Bodhidarma stay in the temple because of his new ideas concearning Buddhism, that he feared who disturb the other monks. Bodhidarma then moved out into a cave where he faced a stone wall and meditated all day long. After a while, the monks were so impressed by this monk, who meditated throughout the day, that they started to visit him in his cave. Finally, the abbot coould no longer deny this monk access to the temple and let him settle there as the first patriarch of Zen. Bodhidarma studied the monks as they studied religion and meditated and found that their bodies were weak and in no way suited for any kind of hard mental training. He soon started teaching the monks two series of physical excercises; Yi-Jin-Jing och Xi-Sui-Jing.

Yi-Jin-Jing that consists of 12 Qi-gong patterns which make the body stronger and more mobile.
Xi-Sui-Jing is made up from a number of inner and outer practices for meditation and Ki-flow.

Following the death of Bodhidarma in 536, these practices became part of the monks education and Zen grew and spred throughout Asia.
These excercises were originally meant to strengthen the monks but eventually became the foundation for all forms of asian martial arts.

From Okinawa to the japanese mainland
On Okinawa, there were two major styles of karate. Naha-Te whose master was called Yasutsune Azato (1828-1906) and Shuri-Te which was lead by Yasutsune Anko Itosu (1830-1915) whom both trained too Sokon "Bushi" Matsumura (1796-1893). These masters had a mutual student called Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957).
Gichin Funakoshi became the first person who successfully brought karate to the japanese mainland. The first dojo that was built in Japan by Gichin, was named Shotokan. Shoto was Gichin´s signature when he signed his works in calligraphy and poetry. Kan menas hall so the actuak meaning of Shotokan is the hall of Shoto. Unfortunately, this dojo was destryed during World War II. The name later became the name of the karate-do that originated from the old Okinawa karate by Gichin between 1923-1940 and his son Yoshitaka between 1941-1945, Shotokan-Ryu Karate-Do.

Yoshitaka "Gigo" Funakoshi 1906-1945
Yoshitaka was the third son of Gichin. In his youth he was diagnosed with TBC, which was at the time a lethal disease. Doctors said that he would only live to see his early twenties. Despite this or perhaps because of this, Yoshitaka trained twice as hard as everybody else and developed a more powerful and dynamic karate-do than ever before. These influences came among other things from kendo. Yoshitaka emphasized kumite and created Gohon kumite, Kihon Ippon kumite, Jiyu Ippon Kkumite and Jiyu kumite. He also made the kicking techniques more dynamic with higher position of the knee and a lower centre of. He introduced karate to the japanese military in 1943 and during the war, karate went through many changes and became more realistic and effective than ever before.

Shihan Taiji Kase 1929-2004
Sensei Kase came in contact with karate during a period of time when it was at its most dynamic phase and started training under Yoshita Funakoshi in the year 1944. Yoshitaka was at this time chief instructor in the Shotokan dojo, after his father had retired. Kase sensei often speks of this period and how it has affected his karate-do. Following the second World War some years passed when karate remained static due to Yoshitakas death in 1945 and that many of the instructors were killed in the war. The Shotokan dojo was also destroyed. After his sons death, Gichin Funakoshi took over the role as chief instructor and founded JKA in 1949. Sensei Kase, who at this time held the rank of 3 dan, joined the association in the early fifties. He ahd an important part as a senior instructor and trained among others Sensei Enoeda and Sensei Shirai

In 1964, Sensei Kase decided to spread karate throughout the world together with Sensei Nishiyama, Sensei Shirai, Sensei Kanazawa and Sensei Enoeda among others. At first he ended up in South Africa, where he spent a couple of years before finally settling in Paris, France, where he resides today. It was at this time he started to develop the karate-dp he learned from Sensei Yoshitaka, Yoshitaka-Ryu. At this time, techniques with closed hands were long since used, but open hand techniques were not very far He made the techniques more effective both in the offensive but also defensive situations. Earlier blocking was made with one hand and the counterattack with the other (Sei-Te), but sensei Kase developed this further by combining several techniques with one hand (Hen-Te). A major source of inspiration was the samurai Miyamoto Mushashi and his way of fighting with two swords instead of one as was traditional. To make kata more realistic, bunkai has been further developed by Sensei Kase, who has also mirrored (ura) and turned them backwards (go). This is to bring balance to the body and to be able to defend oneself in every possible situation.

When Masatoshi Nakayama died in 1987, it gave rise to political conflicts within the JKA. Because of this Sensei Kase decided to leave the association because he felt that karate must come first, not politics. Together with Sensei Shirai, he started the organisation WKSA (World Karate Shotokan Academy) in 1989. This made many of the instructors of JKA to leave their old organisation and join WKSA. Sensei Kase suffered a heartattack in 1999 and then decided to dissolve the organisation and instead a common interest organisation for instructors (SRKHIA) was formed. This organisation is open for anyone with the rank of 3 dan or higher and has chosen to follow the karate-do that Sensei Kase once learned from Sensei Yoshitaka Funakoshi and that he has developed to the present Shotokan-Ryu Kase-Ha.